Is AstraZeneca safe? You bet your life

Life’s a shooting match, and no one knows that better than those in the insurance industry.

If you want to know the odds of meeting any sort of misfortune, an actuary is your best source.

Why are car insurance rates high? Because people keep crashing cars. In the United States, your lifetime chance of dying in a motor vehicle accident is about one in 100.

You’re far less likely to choke on your own food. Those lifetime odds are one in 2,500. Dying of sunstroke? One in 8,000 (or perhaps one in a million in St. John’s during April).

So, what are your chances of dying from a rare blood clot caused by the AstraZeneca vaccine?

The chance, according to the latest numbers, is about one in 250,000.

You’re almost twice as likely to die from a lightning strike.

A week ago, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) released its initial verdict on the relationship between the AstraZeneca vaccine (which it now calls Vaxzevria) and the occurrence of a rare blood clot condition.

In short, it found the connection is real, but so rare as to be almost insignificant compared to the benefits.

“COVID-19 is associated with a risk of hospitalization and death,” the agency wrote. “The reported combination of blood clots and low blood platelets is very rare, and the overall benefits of the vaccine in preventing COVID-19 outweigh the risks of side effects.”

That’s good enough for Rod Russell.

“I would get this vaccine right now if someone offered it to me. No hesitation,” he told The Telegram Friday.

Russell, a viral immunologist at Memorial University, says he’s afraid bad headlines about the vaccine will induce hesitancy when it’s not warranted.

“This vaccine has been a PR nightmare for the company,” he admitted. “It’s had about five bumps in the road now. I find 2020 and 2021 have been like 10 years wrapped up in two because so much has happened.”

In Phase 3 trials, he said, the developers accidentally gave people half the dose they intended to, but it turned out to work better than planned. Then, they had a question of whether it would be effective for people over 65. That turned out to be a non-issue.

Finally came the blood clot scare, in two waves. The latest caused Canadian officials to recommend halting its use in adults under 55 years of age.

In Newfoundland and Labrador, it’s been given in separate clinics to anyone aged 55-64 who wants it.

Like any medical treatment, vaccines are all about risk-benefit analysis. And historically, vaccines have among the lowest risk profiles on the planet.

“I’m not going to say there’s no risk. Of course, there’s a risk. But if you weigh it out, it’s a risk I’d be willing to take,” said Russell.

“If you’re worried about blood clots, you should get the vaccine, because there’s a lot less chance of getting a blood clot from the vaccine than there is from getting the virus.”

How much less? There’s a one in five chance with the disease.

In other words, COVID-19 itself is about 20,000 times more likely to cause a blood clot than AstraZeneca.

The vaccine risk is more common in women, but Russell notes that both birth control pills and pregnancy are riskier.

“The risk (of blood clots) from birth control is way higher than that.”

The type of clot the vaccine causes — a combination of clots and low platelet count — can be more serious than a garden variety clot.

“People who have received the vaccine should seek medical assistance immediately if they develop symptoms of this combination of blood clots and low blood platelets,” the EMA wrote.

For two weeks after receiving it, recipients are asked to be aware of any of the following symptoms:

• shortness of breath

• chest pain

• leg swelling

• persistent abdominal (belly) pain

• neurological symptoms, such as severe and persistent headaches or blurred vision

• tiny blood spots under the skin beyond the site of the injection.

So far, AstraZeneca clinics in the province have booked up within hours of being announced.

Russell says that’s a good thing.

“I’ve talked to at least five people this past week just around the hospital … and everybody in the hallway is like, ‘I’m getting my vaccine this week!’ So they’re really excited about it,” he said.

Furthermore, with Canada going through a third wave of COVID-19 and growing fears of complacency after more than a year of pandemic measures, Russell says vaccines are the only thing that can end the cycle.

“I have two little girls and I want life to be normal again,” he said.

“The fastest way back to any kind of normal is herd immunity, is vaccination.”

Peter Jackson, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Telegram

Canada set to receive 1M Pfizer-BioNTech doses, Moderna playing catch-up

OTTAWA — A batch of more than 855,000 doses of vaccine from Moderna is now on route to Canada, Procurement Minister Anita Anand said Monday afternoon.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The delivery of 855,600 doses was first scheduled for last week, but was delayed because of an ongoing backlog in quality assurance checks at the drugmakers production lines in Europe.

Anand said Monday the doses were picked up by FedEx in Europe Monday, and will arrive in Toronto Tuesday. Innomar Strategies, the company contracted to handle all vaccine distributions except for Pfizer-BioNTech, will receive them, and turn them around for redistribution to provinces and territories.

"The provinces will receive the Moderna deliveries this week," Anand said in an interview with The Canadian Press.

A shipment of about one million Pfizer doses was to arrive Monday, for a total of 1.9 million new doses this week.

Maj.-Gen. Dany Fortin, the military officer overseeing the federal government’s vaccination distribution effort, said last week there could be a similar delay in the delivery of 1.2 million doses from Moderna next week.

“It’s prudent planning on our part right now to bank on the last week of April,” Fortin said last Thursday.

In comparison, Pfizer-BioNTech has been consistently delivering more than 1 million shots to Canada each week for more than a month, a trend that is expected to continue for the foreseeable future.

The Public Health Agency is not expecting any shots of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine this week. Canada has also approved a vaccine produced by Johnson & Johnson, but it is not clear when the first of those doses will be delivered.

The rush to get vaccines into Canadians' arms has grown more urgent as Canada continues to see a massive spike in the number of new COVID-19 infections.

Thousands of new cases were reported on Sunday, including a record 4,456 in Ontario alone. Dr. Theresa Tam, the country's chief public health officer, noted admissions to intensive care units surged 23 per cent last week compared to the one before and said the Canada is approaching the peak of the current pandemic wave.

Tam said many of those getting sick are younger than in previous COVID-19 surges, which experts have blamed on virus variants that are spreading across the country.

That has prompted some provinces to start looking at changes to how they are distributing their vaccines.

More than 10 million doses had been distributed across Canada as of Sunday afternoon, according to covid19tracker.ca, with nearly 8 million having been administered.

Almost 20 per cent of the population has received at least one shot.

— With files from Mia Rabson.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 12, 2021.

Lee Berthiaume, The Canadian Press

Note to readers: This is corrected story. A previous version said Canada was only expecting one million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech's vaccine to be delivered this week.

New Linux Foundation project takes blockchain and the open source approach to the insurance industry

Veronica Combs 

TECHREPUBLIC

4/12/2021

© Provided by TechRepublic Image: uriz, Getty Images/iStockphoto

Two working groups are using a blockchain and a new collaboration platform to introduce the insurance industry to the idea of sharing data to develop new solutions. The Linux Foundation is developing this service in partnership with the American Association of Insurance Services.

The Open Insurance Data Link platform will reduce the cost of regulatory reporting for insurance carriers, provide a standardized data repository for analytics and a connection point for third parties to deliver new applications to members, according to the foundation. The foundation announced the new project on Monday, April 12 and describes the project as the "first open blockchain platform that enables the efficient, secure and permissioned-based collection and sharing of statistical data."

"From the very beginning, we recognized the enormous transformative potential for openIDL and distributed ledger technology," AIS CEO Ed Kelly said in a press release. "We are happy to work with the Linux Foundation to help affect meaningful, positive change for the insurance ecosystem."

SEE: A new Linux Foundation open source signing tool could make secure software supply chains universal (TechRepublic)

openIDL is also collaborating on joint software development including Hyperledger Fabric, Hadoop, Node.js, MongoDB and other open technologies to implement a "harmonized data store," that will allow data privacy and accountable operations.

openIDL is part of the foundation's open governance network which includes nodes run by numerous organizations and connected by a shared distributed ledger that provides a platform for recording transactions and automating business processes. The network uses open source code and community governance for objective transparency and accountability among participants.

Mike Dolan, senior vice president and general manager of projects at the Linux Foundation, said in a press release that the organization is excited to host this work.

"Open governance networks like openIDL can now accelerate innovation and development of new product and service offerings for insurance providers and their customers," he said.

Other partners include The Hanover Insurance Group, Travelers, The Hartford and technology and service providers Chainyard, KatRisk and MOBI.

Two working groups are using the platform: one focused on floods and the other on property and casualty regulatory reporting. The flood group is developing solutions to evaluate and respond to the U.S. flood risk while the other group is developing solutions to make regulatory reporting more transparent while still protecting proprietary information.

According to the press release, all software source code developed will be licensed under an OSI-approved open source license, and all interface specifications developed will be published under an open specification license. Also, technical discussions between participants will take place publicly with the goal of expanding the network to include other participants.

'Children will die': Transgender advocates warn about risks as more states consider banning gender-affirming care for kids

Marc Ramirez, USA TODAY 

Willow Breshears knew she was different for as long as she can remember. Growing up in rural Arkansas, she said she often felt depressed, her discoveries about herself quashed by social norms and Baptist teachings.


How the LGBTQ community is still fighting for rights years after Stonewall

Now 18 and living in Little Rock, the transgender activist testified before lawmakers as part of an effort to try to stop the passage of a proposed state law that, among other things, would ban doctors from providing gender-affirming care such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy to youths under 18. She and others protesting the measure were unsuccessful.

The mostly Republican Legislature overrode Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s veto last week to make Arkansas the first state to enact such a law. About 30 states are mulling similar legislation – a development advocates say endangers the lives of young transgender people, places ideology over science and disrupts the sanctity of the physician-patient relationship by preventing doctors from providing best-practice care

© Rick Bowmer, AP Robyn and Clay Rumsey's child Dex, 15, of Roy, Utah, came out as transgender at age 12. In consultation with a counselor and doctors, he began wearing short hair and boy's clothes, then used puberty blockers and testosterone. He says he could become depressed and suicidal if a ban on hormone therapy and sex-reassignment surgery for minors passes.

“The only people who should have that say is that transgender person, their family and their doctors,” Breshears said. “This is not a place for legislators to step into.”

Arkansas’ Save Adolescents From Experimentation (SAFE) Act prohibits physicians from referring patients to other providers and, in what some call a particularly heinous move, includes no grandfather clause for youth under treatment.

“That means that if you’re already taking puberty blockers prescribed by a doctor, the state of Arkansas has just gone into your doctor’s office and told them, ‘You cannot prescribe this or do any bloodwork to monitor your levels,’” said Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen, deputy executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality. “This is truly a phenomenal level of government overreach.”

Critics compare lawmakers to bullies picking on a small but vulnerable population, using transgender youth as pawns in a cultural war while placing their emotional and physical well-being in jeopardy. Such legislation, they say, plays on fear and misinformation and places doctors in an ethically difficult position of providing care at the risk of losing their medical license.

These measures raise the risk of mental health issues among transgender youth already prone to higher rates of anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts, opponents say.

“There’s only so many people taking puberty blockers in Arkansas,” Heng-Lehtinen said. “But every single transgender person is feeling the effect of this attack. It’s the government, pure and simple, saying, 'You don’t belong.' It’s such an antagonistic and heartless message to send.”

Such fears are not unfounded: Arkansas state Rep. Deborah Ferguson, a Democrat who spoke out against the bill, said that after the law passed, an Arkansas Children's Hospital physician testified that several of the approximately four dozen youth receiving hormonal therapy have tried to commit suicide.

“It is unfortunate that the makeup of our Legislature has changed to the extent that we are weaponizing religion to discriminate against this small minority,” Ferguson said.

Advocates said access to gender-affirming medical care is linked with better mental health, including a lower incidence of suicidal thoughts. Bills denying such care have been condemned by major medical groups around the country, such as the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychiatric Association.

“This legislation throws away decades of medical progress,” said Jack Turban, a fellow in child and adolescent psychiatry at the Stanford University School of Medicine in California, calling it “dangerous and anti-science.”

For Breshears, the Little Rock activist, her gender-affirming care was “life-changing and lifesaving,” she said. “I started hormones at age 13, and I can say that without that, I might not be here today.”

Breshears came out as gay when she was 12, even as she knew the label didn’t really fit. It wasn’t until after her family moved to Little Rock, where she began attending youth programs at an LGBT rights organization, that she learned the language that could describe who she was.

“I had heard the word ‘transgender’ a couple times before that but never really in a positive way,” said Breshears, who leads those same youth programs. “That’s what really helped me flourish. I was a woman, but I never really knew the words to describe that.”

Though her declaration splintered her extended family, her mom and grandmother “have been super supportive,” she said.

Breshears scoffed at notions pushed by lawmakers that those under 18 are too young to decide for themselves.

“It’s not something where you just wake up and decide you’re trans,” she said. “Any parent of a trans child is going to tell you they knew from a very young age. The first thing my mom said when I told her was, ‘You don’t know how long I’ve been waiting for you to tell me that.’”
'Explicit attempts at erasing trans youth'

Arkansas’ SAFE Act, though citing the relatively low population of people it describes as having struggled with “distress at identifying with their biological sex,” says gender-affirming treatments prescribed by doctors haven’t been fully proved safe and claims without citation that the majority of individuals come to identify with their birth gender in adulthood, making such care unnecessary.

State Rep. Robin Lundstrum, a Republican who was the bill's primary sponsor, quoted a Swedish study saying transgender individuals who'd undergone gender reassignment surgery were more likely than the general population to suffer mental health issues and far more likely to commit suicide. That 2011 study also said such surgeries eased gender dysphoria and improved care afterward.

Though Arkansas' is the first of its kind to become law, the Human Rights Campaign says nearly 60 such bills have been introduced nationwide in the past two years despite no evidence of any youth receiving inappropriate care.

Thirty of those bills, the group said, would likewise deny gender-affirming care and medical services to transgender youth. They’re part of a larger tally of nearly 200 anti-LGBTQ bills considered in state legislatures, the organization said.

Twenty-nine states are debating bills that would prohibit transgender girls and women from girls' and women's sports. Trans athletes and their advocates say groups that support such bans use harmful traditional definitions of gender.

Such legislation has been on the rise in the past two years, despite surveys showing that most Americans support transgender rights overall, including the right of transgender youth to participate on sports teams that feel most comfortable to them, and that a majority of parents would support their teen’s request to transition to another gender.

In a statement, CEO Kevin Jennings of LGBT civil rights organization Lambda Legal, said such measures “are rooted in animus and ignorance about what it means to be transgender. They disregard medical science, standards of treatment for transgender youth and basic human dignity.”

Lambda Legal, along with the American Civil Liberties Union, promised legal challenges against the Arkansas law.

“These states are truly heading in the wrong direction and straight to the courts,” said Avatara Smith-Carrington of Lambda Legal’s south central regional office. “These bills are explicit attempts at erasing trans youth from public life.”

Clair Farley, executive director of San Francisco’s Office of Transgender Initiatives, said the escalation of such bills is a result of Trump administration rhetoric and rollbacks of transgender protections in housing, health care, employment and public accommodations.

Farley, whose upbringing as a trans youth in Montana inspired her to pursue advocacy work, said that such bills are even being discussed is upsetting for youth fearful society won’t accept them for who they are.

“Growing up is hard enough for anyone and can be particularly difficult for transgender youth, especially those living in conservative and rural environments,” Farley said.

Sam Brinton, vice president of advocacy and public affairs for The Trevor Project, a national LGBTQ suicide prevention organization, said survey results, to be published next month, found that 90% of LGBTQ youth said politics negatively affected their well-being.

“If your state legislator is debating whether you should exist or have rights, you can imagine that that is basically destroying your sense of self,” Brinton said.

Transgender youth face higher levels of anxiety and depression, especially if they lack family support or experience bullying at school and mistreatment from teachers and officials. In The Trevor Project’s survey on mental health of LGBTQ youth in 2020, more than half of transgender and gender-nonconforming respondents said they had seriously considered suicide.

“Being transgender in and of itself does not lead to these risks,” said Paula Neira, board secretary for GLMA: Health Professionals Advancing LGBTQ Equality and clinical director for the Johns Hopkins Center for Transgender Health. “What increases it is how you are treated and whether you are able to receive care.”

Denying gender-affirming care to these youth is a form of discrimination, advocates say, that will increase the stigma they probably feel in society.

Hannah Willard, vice president of government affairs for Freedom For All Americans, a national LGBTQ advocacy organization, said the human cost of these bills “cannot be overstated. This is causing unparalleled levels of despair and heartbreak, and it sends a terrible message to kids that they are broken and damaged and don’t deserve access to the care we all deserve.”

In a statement issued by the Human Rights Campaign, Arkansas State Manager Eric Reece called the law “a cruel and shameful way for legislators to score political points by targeting transgender youth, who are simply trying to navigate their adolescence.”

Parents of trans youth fear harm of removing gender-affirming care

For parents, the possibility of seeing their children’s support systems ripped apart is devastating. Among the states considering similar bills is Alabama, where parents Christa and Jeff White worry about the effect passage could have on their 12-year-old transgender daughter, a middle schooler they chose not to name to protect her privacy.

“The idea that this could put my daughter in danger is not OK with me,” said Christa White, a stay-at-home mom and women’s rights activist. "This is potentially devastating, not just to our child, but to all transgender children undergoing these treatments. Children will die."

The family, including two older teenage sons, lives in northern Alabama, near Huntsville. In addition to seeing a pediatric endocrinologist who prescribes hormone blockers, they said, their daughter receives regular counseling.

“We’re covering all angles to try to do what’s best for her,” Christa said.

Her path began unremarkably, they said, and at first, her parents figured she was “just being a kid,” Christa said. “Nothing extreme. She was dressing gender-neutral, and she liked strong female leads in movies.”

Then came a series of conversations that progressed as their daughter became exposed to terminology her parents used with LGBT friends.

“She always prompted the conversations,” Christa said. “I’d just say, you let me know and we’ll talk about it. And finally, it clicked. She knew what she was before, but she didn’t know the wording. And she blossomed. There was no looking back. It was just, like, ‘This is me.’”

Jeff White, a software engineer, said although they’ve lost a few friends and family members along the way, he and his wife feel lucky their daughter’s path was not as challenging as it could have been.

“Her confidence has really grown,” he said. “And her relationships with her friends as well. Her whole life experience has been changed.”

She’s a happy, regular kid, into Star Wars, anime, video games and long phone chats with her friends.

That’s why the thought that her gender-affirming care could be ripped away is so upsetting.

“We don’t want to go backwards,” Jeff said. “We’ve seen the positive effect that transitioning has had in her life. We don’t need the government coming in and deciding for us what innate qualities of a person are acceptable. We want her to be free to be herself.”

Though they haven’t discussed the legislation with their daughter in major detail “because we don’t want to scare her,” he said, she knows something is up.

“We don’t know what our plan is,” Christa said. “We’re going to fight it in some way. If we’re allowed to go out of state, we will. We will do all we are able to do to help her down this path.”

0Trans athletes are speaking out against bills that would ban trans kids from competing

For doctors treating transgender youth, Arkansas law creates 'an impossible situation'

Advocates note that decisions about such care are made only after a methodical series of discussions among the patient, parents and physicians.

“It really is very careful and thoughtful and deliberate,” said Lee Savio Beers, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics. “There’s often a misconception that it’s something people rush into. But it takes place over a long time, and the path for one patient may be different than for another, and it heavily involves the family.”

When a child’s identity doesn’t match the gender assigned at birth, it can be agonizing, especially as the changes of puberty begin to set in. Treatments such as hormone therapy, Arkansas Rep. Ferguson said, give youth a chance to pause development while they come to terms with who they are.

Turban, the Stanford School of Medicine fellow, said he’s seen patients “so distressed by their chests developing that they bind their chests tightly despite medical issues like trouble breathing and skin infections,” he said. “Some kids will even have rib fractures.”

Legislation that bans doctors from providing gender-affirming care would put them “in an impossible position,” Beers said. “We take an oath that we’re going to provide the best possible care, and bills like this tell us you can’t provide that care. We’re being forced to have to decide.”

One aftereffect of the law, she said, may be that if doctors can no longer make referrals, patients will seek help on their own, even if it’s out of state. Without guidance, they could end up with lower quality or substandard care.

“This completely violates the physician-patient relationship,” Beers said. “It’s an incredibly dangerous precedent.”

Arkansas pediatrician Susan Averitt, who runs a private practice north of Fayetteville, said she and her colleagues find the law frustrating.

“We feel like it’s legislating what we can discuss with our patients in our clinics and the way we provide care,” Averitt said. “Our role is to help guide them and either provide care ourselves or refer them to specialty care, and this limits my ability to provide good guidance and care within my own office.”

Such decisions “are being made by people who don’t have medical training and don’t understand the science and medicine taking place,” Averitt said. “But for some reason, they feel like they’re protecting children. It’s based on fear and misinformation. We don’t do surgeries on patients under 18, so they’re not receiving experimental treatment – just support, and in some cases, hormonal care.”

If the law stands, the hospital clinic to which she would normally refer patients, set up to meet the needs of transgender youth, would probably cease to exist. It breaks her heart, she said, to think about how it will disrupt the relationships doctors built with young transgender patients, and she worries those youths will suffer mental health issues and suicidal ideation as a result.

“They will feel like society doesn’t accept them,” she said.

Brinton of The Trevor Project said the law will make trans youth less likely to come out as such or to talk to someone about their experience, even as research shows that having an understanding adult in a youth’s life reduces suicidal ideation by 40%.

Willard of Freedom For All Americans said the law will exacerbate Arkansas' pandemic-related economic problems, making it hard to recruit and retain medical talent, especially in the state’s rural areas.

“Doctors are not going to want to relocate to a state that threatens to revoke their license for just doing their jobs,” Willard said. “There will be a massive medical fallout.”

Advocates hope science and time will be on their side, noting the generational divides in terms of how the public views transgender issues.

Heng-Lehtinen of the National Center for Transgender Equality said that as Americans become more aware of trans individuals in their communities, attitudes will come around.

Though that might sound Pollyannaish, he said, the same thing happened with same-sex marriage equality.

“More and more trans people are coming out at a younger age,” he said. “That’s why younger generations are more supportive. They see their friends. They see that trans people are in their neighborhoods and schools. That does fill me with hope that at the end of the day, people will see that we’re on the right side, but there’s a lot of urgency to do that as fast as possible so that we save lives.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Children will die': Transgender advocates warn about risks as more states consider banning gender-affirming care for kids

Nick Lees: Statue in Edmonton to honour Anne Frank back on track

Nick Lees, Edmonton Journal 

4/12/2021

Teenager Anne Frank has been called the symbol of Second World War horrors and Nazi tyranny by historians

.

© Provided by Edmonton Journal Anne Frank

Now, Edmonton’s Dutch community is back on track to erect a copy of the first Anne Frank statue made by famous artist Pieter d’Hont.

“This bronze statue is our way of thanking the many Canadian soldiers who were crucial in liberating the Netherlands from the Nazis in 1945,” says realtor John Stobbe, who has worked on the project with Dutch Hon. Consul Jerry Bouma and Edmonton Dutch Canadian Club president Frank Stolk.

“We had planned to place our Anne Frank statue in Old Strathcona’s Light Horse Park last year and launched our $75,000 campaign in January 2020 to cover the cost of the statue, transportation, installation and maintenance.”

The ceremony was planned for May 4 to mark the 75th anniversary of the Canadian Liberation of the Netherlands, which cost some 7,600 Canadian lives during a nine-month campaign.

“The COVID-19 pandemic saw the ceremony postponed,” says Stobbe. “And renovations to Light Horse Park saw it postponed again in the fall.

“Now our statue, poured from the original 1960 Anne Frank mould and only the second in the world to be placed in a public space, will be unveiled Aug. 8 this year.”

There is more good news, reports Stobbe.

“An Edmonton Journal column significantly helped launch our fundraising campaign in February 2020,” he says. “Word about the campaign spread and cash and cheques came from many places with letters of support.

“Donors included 2,500 Euros from the Dutch city of Steenbergen and $2,000 from the Edmonton Jewish Federation.”

Last week, the campaign was pushed well over the top with an Alberta government Community Initiatives Program grant of $30,000.

Anne Frank’s diary was first published in 1947 and has sold more than 40-million copies in 70 languages.

Frank’s Jewish family, says Stobbe, fled to Amsterdam from Frankfurt, Germany, in 1933 when she was four years old and Adolf Hitler’s persecution of Jews was gathering speed.

“Hitler invaded neutral Holland in 1940 and Jews were soon required to wear a yellow star, forbidden to use streetcars, ride in their own cars, and go to theatres and movies,” says the realtor.

“On June 12, 1942, Anne’s 13th birthday, it was announced all sport was prohibited to Jews, who later also had to hand over their bicycles and walk in the gutters.”

On her birthday, Anne was presented with a colourful autograph book she had spotted a week before and it became her diary. But 23 days later, her entire family went into hiding in an annex belonging to her businessman father and lived there for two years.

On Aug. 4, 1944, the Gestapo raided the annex and Frank’s family was sent to a Nazi transit camp.

One month later, records show Frank was among 1,019 prisoners jammed into box-cars with no room to sit. They travelled in near total darkness for days, enduring stench from a corner waste bucket and from people unable to reach it.

The prisoners disembarked at Auschwitz, a complex of more than 40 concentration and extermination camps where some 1.1 million people were killed between 1940 to 1945.

Frank, later covered by lice, mites and bedbugs, was sent to a scabies ward where rats and mice scampered over patients at night.

On. Oct. 28, 1944, she was sent to the disease-ridden Bergen-Belson camp in Germany and became one of 35,000 prisoners who died during a typhus outbreak in early 1945.

Her father Otto Frank survived the camps and, on return to the Netherlands, was handed his daughter’s diary, found on the annex floor.

“Human greatness does not lie in wealth or power, but in character and goodness,” reads one of Anne’s diary musings. She advises: “Be kind and have courage.”

MUSK THE MERCILESS

Imperator Meaning As Elon Musk Changes Twitter Bio to 'Imperator of Mars'

EMPEROR OF MARS

Elon Musk has changed his Twitter bio to include the phrase "Imperator of Mars." As of Monday morning, Musk's full Twitter bio read: "Technoking of Tesla, Imperator of Mars." In addition, the bio included a single winking emoji.

© Maja Hitij/Getty Images Tesla head Elon Musk arrives to have a look at the construction site of the new Tesla Gigafactory near Berlin on September 03, 2020 near Gruenheide, Germany.

It is unclear what sparked the update to his social media account, which has more than 50 million followers. The term imperator is defined as "a commander in chief or emperor of the ancient Romans," according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary.

The Merriam-Webster website also provided a brief history of the term, which explained that it was borrowed from the Latin word "imperātor."

It said the word imperātor is defined as a: "person giving orders, commanding officer, title of honor bestowed on a victorious general by his troops, title conferred by the Roman senate on Julius Caesar and Augustus and adopted by later successors."

In its guide, Dictionary.com noted that the origin of the word imperator dates to between 1570 and 1580. It lists three meanings: absolute or supreme ruler, (in Imperial Rome) emperor, (in Republican Rome) a temporary title accorded a victorious general.

Outside of the literal definitions, Imperator: Rome is the name of a strategy video game released in April 2019 and developed by Paradox Development Studio.

A description on the Steam marketplace, where it is sold for Windows, Mac and Linux devices, reads: "Set in the tumultuous centuries from Alexander's Successor Empires in the East to the foundation of the Roman Empire, Imperator: Rome invites you to relive the pageantry and challenges of empire building in the classical era. Manage your population, keep an eye out for treachery, and keep faith with your gods."

The SpaceX and Tesla boss is currently overseeing test flights of the Starship project, a reusable rocket system with Mars as a future destination, and has long spoken about his ambitions of reaching, exploring and even colonizing the distant red planet.

In January Musk changed his Twitter bio to "#bitcoin." His electric car company Tesla now lets customers based in the United States pay for some of its vehicles using the volatile token, he confirmed last month.

On March 15 this year, it emerged via a U.S. regulatory filing that Musk's official title in the car company would be updated to include the term "Technoking of Tesla." Its chief financial officer, Zach Kirkhorn, would hold the position of "Master of Coin."

"Elon and Zach will also maintain their respective positions as Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer," the filing said at the time.

Scientists unearth ancient SKUNK fossil from 74 million years ago


Ian Randall For Mailonline

© Provided by Daily Mail MailOnline logo

The remains of an ancient, skunk-like mammal, dubbed Orretherium tzen, the 'Beast of Five Teeth', has been unearthed in Chilean Patagonia.

Palaeontologists uncovered part of the creature's fossilised jawbone, complete with five attached teeth, in the 'Mammal Quarry' of the Río de Las Chinas Valley.

O. tzen is thought to been a herbivore and lived around 72–74 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous, making it a contemporary of the dinosaurs.




Palaeontologists uncovered part of the creature's fossilised jawbone, complete with five attached teeth (pictured), in the 'Mammal Quarry' of the Río de Las Chinas 
3 SLIDES © Provided by Daily Mail

Palaeontologists uncovered part of the creature's fossilised jawbone, complete with five attached teeth (pictured), in the 'Mammal Quarry' of the Río de Las Chinas Valley

The discovery of O. tzen adds to mounting evidence that mammals were roaming the area we know today as South America a lot earlier than was previously thought.

With the exception of Magallanodon baikashkenke — a rodent-like creature who was also found in the Río de Las Chinas Valley last year — mammals from 46–38 million years ago had only previously been found at the southernmost tip of the Americas.

The team believe that O. tzen and M. baikashkenke likely lived at the same time.

According to University of Chile palaeontologist Sergio Soto, such discoveries are critical to completing the evolutionary puzzle of the group of long-extinct early mammals called 'Gondwanatheria'.

'This and other discoveries that we are going to make known in the future are revealing that there is enormous potential in terms of palaeontology in the southern tip of Chile,' said Dr Soto.

'We are finding things that we did not expect to find and that are going to help us answer a lot of questions that we had for a long time about dinosaurs, mammals and other groups.

'

© Provided by Daily Mail O. tzen is thought to been a herbivore and lived around 72–74 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous — making it a contemporary of the dinosaurs. Pictured: the mammal's teeth© Provided by Daily Mail The discovery of O. tzen (pictured in an artist's impression) adds to mounting evidence that mammals were roaming the area we know today as South America a earlier than once thought

'Findings of new fossiliferous sites, not only in Patagonia but also in the Antarctic Peninsula and the rest of South America are needed,' the researchers concluded.

This, they added, will allow us to determine 'if Patagonia summarizes the fossil record of the continent, or even of [the supercontinent] Gondwana, or if it is only a small piece of a marvellous history at the dusk of the Mesozoic Era.'

'Certainly, Patagonia was an evolutionary laboratory in which disparate body sizes and craniodental morphologies appeared.'

The full findings of the study were published in the journal Scientific Reports.

© Provided by Daily Mail 'This and other discoveries that we are going to make known in the future are revealing that there is enormous potential in terms of palaeontology in the southern tip of Chile,' said Dr Soto. Pictured: Three-dimensional renderings of O. tzen's jaw and teeth

© Provided by Daily Mail Palaeontologists uncovered part of the creature's fossilised jawbone, complete with five attached teeth, in the 'Mammal Quarry' of the Río de Las Chinas Valley

POACHED FOR RABBIT STEW?

‘World’s biggest rabbit’ stolen from home in Worcestershire

Owner Annette Edwards offers £1,000 reward for return of Guinness World Record-holding giant rabbit

Annette Edwards with Darius, her continental giant rabbit – she has offered a £1,000 reward for his return. Photograph: Mcfadden/ANL/Rex/Shutterstock

PA Media
Mon 12 Apr 2021 

A rabbit proclaimed the biggest in the world has been stolen from its home in Worcestershire, police have said.

West Mercia police believe the 129cm-long continental giant rabbit, named Darius, was taken from its enclosure in the garden of the property in Stoulton overnight on Saturday.

The rabbit was awarded a Guinness World Record in 2010 for being the biggest of its kind.

His owner, Annette Edwards, has offered a £1,000 reward for his return, saying it was a “very sad day”.

Edwards asked on Twitter for those who took Darius to “please bring him back”, saying he was too old to breed now.

A West Mercia police spokesperson said: “We are appealing for information following the theft of an award-winning rabbit from its home in Stoulton, Worcestershire.

“It is believed the continental giant rabbit was stolen from its enclosure in the garden of the property of its owners overnight on Saturday 10 April to 11 April.”

The force have asked for those with information about the incident to contact PC Daren Riley via 101 quoting reference 00286-I-11042021.

ALL CAPITALI$M IS STATE CAPITALISM

Air Canada agrees to $5.9-billion aid package, giving Ottawa equity stake in airline

LIBERAL'S PRIVATIZED CROWN CORPORATION

AIR CANADA TO AVOID TAXPAYER BAIL OUTS

OTTAWA — After months of negotiations, Ottawa has reached a multibillion-dollar rescue deal with Air Canada that will give the government an equity stake in the pandemic-battered airline.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Under the agreement, Air Canada can access up to $5.9 billion from the public purse but must refund passengers whose flights were cancelled due to COVID-19, cap executive compensation at $1 million and restore service to regional airports.

The package, which will see the federal government pay $500 million for a six-per-cent stake in the country's biggest airline, also requires the carrier to maintain employment at current levels or higher.

“Taxpayers aren't footing the bill. This is a loan facility, and the government of Canada fully expects to be paid back," Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said Monday night, referring to the $5.4-billion credit facility.

Some $1.4 billion of that is earmarked to help reimburse the thousands of customers who paid for tickets but remained in the lurch at the end of 2020.

“We have agreed with Air Canada that refunds should be issued as soon as possible, beginning in the coming weeks and months," said Transport Minister Omar Alghabra, though Air Canada has up to seven years to draw on the low-interest loan.

Both Goldy Hyder, chief executive officer of the Business Council of Canada, and Canadian Labour Congress president Hassan Yussuff expressed approval of a rescue package tailored to a devastated industry.

But the Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents 10,000 Air Canada flight attendants, decried the deal, saying it "betrays the government’s commitment to support airline workers affected by the pandemic."

"We had a commitment from the Trudeau government that any relief money for the airline sector would flow directly to support workers, and that commitment is not reflected in this agreement,” CUPE president Mark Hancock said in a statement.

"This deal is exactly what we feared a deal cooked up behind closed doors would look like: it’s a year late, no transparency, and not nearly enough to support the thousands of flight attendants still reeling from the impacts of the pandemic."

Travel restrictions introduced through the beginning of the pandemic have been catastrophic for the airline sector.

Air Canada's passenger numbers declined 73 per cent in 2020 following several years of record growth for the airline. During 2020, it reduced staff by more than 20,000, more than half of the pre-COVID total, then cut another 1,700 employees in January.

The Montreal-based company posted a staggering $1.16-billion loss in the fourth quarter of last year, a result that caps off what the carrier's then-CEO called the bleakest year in aviation history.

Freeland, asked whether the package could provide a framework for a deal with WestJet, stressed the importance of two national airlines and characterized negotiations with the Calgary-based No. 2 carrier as "constructive."

The deal was hashed out under the watch of Michael Sabia, who was named deputy finance minister in December following decades in senior roles in both the corporate world and public service. He stepped down as CEO of the Caisse de depot et placement in February 2020 after 11 years at the helm.

Video: Air Canada aid package gives government equity stake in airline: Freeland (Global News)

The deal he helped hammered out bars dividend payments and share buybacks by Air Canada, on top of capping executive compensation for as long as the loans play out, Freeland said.

The company has also committed to resume service at 13 regional airports as well as seven others through "interline agreements" with regional carriers.

It has further pledged to complete the purchase of 33 Airbus A220 aircraft, manufactured at the Mirabel facility in Quebec, guaranteeing continued employment for factory workers.

Refunds will be available for flights purchased on or before March 22, 2020, for travel after Feb. 1 of last year, regardless of whether they were cancelled by the passenger or the airline, Freeland said.

Tickets purchased after March 22, 2020, where the flight was subsequently cancelled by the airline will also be refundable, she said.

Air Canada confirmed that customers who accepted flight credit or Aeroplan points as well as those who declined both will be eligible for reimbursement.

Ottawa's half-million-dollar purchase of 21.6 million shares at $23.18 per share leaves it with a small ownership stake and the right to buy 14 million more. Its voting interest in the company is capped at just under 20 per cent.

Jacques Roy, a professor of transport management at HEC Montreal business school, deemed the equity stake "a little bit of a surprise."

Canadian airlines had been resisting that tool, though it's been deployed elsewhere. Last week the French government announced it would up its stake in Air France-KLM to about 30 per cent with a $6-billion investment. Germany unveiled a 20 per cent stake in Lufthansa last May as part of a $13.7-billion bailout.

Under the terms of the agreement, Ottawa can buy millions of shares at $27 per share — Air Canada's closing price Monday — over 10 years, if Air Canada chooses to trigger that option.

"Assuming that Air Canada does well and that two, three, five years from now the company shares are back to $40, $50, then the Canadian government can actually make a good deal out of this," Roy said.

More than $2.3 billion of the $5.4 billion in available loans have an interest rate below two per cent, a "cheap" rate that would be enviable to other Canadian carriers, he added.

On top of the massive loan under Canada's Large Employer Emergency Financing Facility (LEEFF) program, the company has raised $6.8 billion in liquidity to stay afloat during the pandemic.

"This program provides additional liquidity, if required, to rebuild our business to the benefit of all stakeholders and to remain a significant contributor to the Canadian economy through its recovery and for the long term," CEO Michael Rousseau said in a statement.

Air Canada collected $554 million from the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy in 2020 and said it would continue to access the program in 2021.

The company lost $4.6-billion in 2020, compared with a profit of $1.5 billion the year before.

In early April, Air Canada pulled the plug on its planned $190-million takeover of Montreal-based tour operator Transat AT, citing Europe's unwillingness to approve the deal, thus triggering a $12.5-million termination fee.

Organizations supporting Air Canada's calls for a bailout have included unions such as Unifor and the Canadian Air Traffic Control Association, as well as the National Airlines Council of Canada industry group.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 12, 2021.

Companies in this story: (TSX:AC, TSX:TRZ)

— With files from Dan Healing

Christopher Reynolds, The Canadian Press

Let users carry certain amounts of drugs without criminal sanctions: Vancouver mayor


VANCOUVER — The City of Vancouver has outlined the amounts of various drugs people should be allowed to carry as it seeks a federal exemption to decriminalize possession for personal use.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Its proposal to combat the overdose crisis is part of an application to Health Canada. It lists possession thresholds for four main drugs: opioids, cocaine, crack cocaine and amphetamines.

The recommended amounts for opioids, such as heroin and fentanyl, are listed as two grams; three grams are proposed for cocaine; one gram or 10 rocks for crack cocaine; and 1.5 grams for amphetamines. The amounts are based on long-term studies of drug users.

Mayor Kennedy Stewart said Monday the city has worked with police, the health authority's chief medical health officer, drug users and experts to determine the three-day supply that would prevent people from seeking substances on a daily basis.

The goal is to remove criminal sanctions and reduce stigma by using a health-focused approach to addiction, Stewart said.

The broad framework of the proposal was submitted to Health Canada in March. The final phase of the proposal is expected to be forwarded in May with more drugs added to the list for consideration.

Drugs that are part of the proposal are recorded as some of the top culprits in overdose deaths by the B.C. Coroners Service, which reported a record 1,716 deaths last year from illicit drugs.

"All you have to do is watch in horror as the next coroners report comes out and we just see the numbers increasing and increasing and increasing. All options have to be on the table and not just talked about," Stewart said.

Mayors in Canada's other big cities are facing similar challenges on overdose deaths without action from all levels of government, Stewart said.

"It's one of the biggest public health policy disasters that we've had in the history of the country. It's just astounding that year after year things don't get better, they get worse. And it shows the level of change that's needed to save lives."

Stewart said policies so far have discriminated against drug users, but Vancouver is trying to take measures that will help, such as providing permanent funding last week for a project that follows up with overdose survivors and offers services including health care, housing and income assistance.

"What I'm hoping is once we get out of COVID we have decriminalization, we have safe supply, we have more housing for folks, for example, and other programs that will be able to turn this around. But we've absolutely failed. All of us have to this point."

In February, British Columbia also requested a similar provincial exemption from Canada's drug laws.

Vancouver city council voted unanimously in November to ask for an exemption.

On Monday, Health Minister Patty Hajdu said substance use has affected thousands of families in communities across Canada and the federal government would work on options to respond to the needs of various jurisdictions.

"Health Canada is working with officials from the province of British Columbia, City of Vancouver and Vancouver Coastal Health to work through the details of these requests, and identify options that will respond to their needs," she said in a statement.

Vancouver's proposal is based on findings from two ongoing studies: one that began in 1996 and involves injection drug users, and another of people between the ages of 14 and 25 whose use includes those drugs listed in the proposal.

Kora DeBeck, a research scientist at the B.C. Centre on Substance Use and one of the expert consultants on the proposal, said the two studies total 1,190 people who reported their drug use patterns, interactions with police and challenges accessing health-care services.

"I think it will be a very important change for some people who use drugs, particularly those who are on the street and quite vulnerable because they are still at risk now of having their drugs seized. Although they're not getting arrested and prosecuted, which is good, it still can be quite a devastating encounter."

Some drug users could resort to sex work while others may be pushed into committing property crime to make money for drugs, she said.

However, DeBeck said that while decriminalization would chip away at some of the stigma of drug use, it will not, on its own, have a large impact on the overdose crisis.

"What this does not do is address the toxic drug supply that people are continuing to rely on," she said.

British Columbia declared a public health emergency because of overdose deaths in April 2016, and over 7,000 people have fatally overdosed since then.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 12, 2021.

Camille Bains, The Canadian Press